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HAVBRUK2-Stort program for havbruksforskning

IS AMOEBIC GILL DISEASE IN SALMON A HYPER-REACTIVE INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE?

Awarded: NOK 0.30 mill.

Infection with Neoparamoeba perurans causes amoebic gill disease. It is understood that clinical signs and mortality depend on the level of infection and subsequent severity of the gill pathology. Therefore low or early infections may remain unnoticed. Mo rtalities are typically in the range of 10-20% but higher losses up to 70% have been reported. Chronic cases are also seen. While AGD has been known for many years the mechanisms inducing the inflammatory and hyperplastic responses are not understood in d etail. What tips the balance from a non-reactive profile towards a reactive variant (with proliferation) is a key question. Our proposal is to test (preliminary) a hypothesis that AGD is a hyper-reactive inflammatory disease of the gills and we draw paral lels to similar conditions of lung inflammation in mammals (like asthma). The clinical manifestation is reliant on the severity of the inflammatory response where cytokine profiles and chemokines fingerprints are crucial for the balance. And more, we prop ose that the gill microbiota is the key element in balancing the response where the microbiota impacts the status of intraepithelial immune organ, which has a major regulatory function of the immune responses of the gills.

Funding scheme:

HAVBRUK2-Stort program for havbruksforskning